Throughout 2021 we will host a series of articles by Granville Taylor describing a concept that the Hunter Valley can become a world class Centre for Waste Management and Recycling as the region commences further diversification of the economy.

The Jiu Valley is laying the groundwork for life after coal.

Communities in Central Europe are forging a new path that honours their mining heritage whilst embracing a regenerative future.

FinancialTimes.com: Clean production of the gas promises valuable role in decarbonising energy — if costs can be brought down The fertiliser plant owned by Fertiberia, in Puertollano, Spain, which will use ‘green’ hydrogen produced by solar power

This regional community in Canada is charting into unprecedented territories with their ambitious goal to transition from coal projects to greenhouse projects.

How will the Village of Wabamun, in Alberta Canada, overcome the roadblock of being coal-dependent for 50 years?

This town is working with a consulting firm to create a sustainable economy in the future.

What would it mean to create an alternative economy in the Hunter Valley that did not sacrifice the land, the water, and the climate?

The Hunter Valley’s history and its contested future are written in piles of coal buried since the swampy Permian period, when giant conifers fell and were pressed for hundreds of millions of years in layers of hard dark pages. Coal drew the English to Newcastle, but even before the English came, coal was part of the lives and stories of the Awabakal people of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. Now that history is being scraped away, loaded onto ships, and sent across the world for burning. The black piles of coal on Newcastle’s Kooragang Island, waiting for ships, presage a dark future to come.

Coal remains a significant contributor to the economies of the world, and backbone of many local communities, so simply closing coal mines can trigger a series of unintended social consequences. We speak to Claudia Strambo of the Stockholm Environment Institute about the difficulties in coal mine closure, and how governments and companies can affect those who rely on these operations.

Energy Storage News' Andy Colthorpe and Liam Stoker explore the way grids are changing in the Middle East to accommodate clean energy, the role virtual power plants are playing in Italy, and the contrasting role coal is playing in Germany and bush fire-stricken Australia.